4 Reminders to Do The Work

After reading many beautiful books, having countless conversations with many friends, and subscribing to many blogs, I realized that my dreams were um…notcoming true. In a blinding flash of wisdom during a particularly low point in life, it occurred to me that I might actually have to DO SOMETHING to make any of them come true!

It’s takes work to make things happen.

I’ve had several reminders on this very subject this past week.

Reminder 1

Right now, for my computer clean up I’ve been working on organizing my pictures. It was unbelievable how many pictures I have in there because I want to try to paint them…one day. I am painting so much more than I used to but I’m not sure if I painted 20 hours a day 7 days a week for the rest of my life that I would come close to painting all the pictures I’ve saved.

“We don’t need to save any more ideas. We need to USE them!” -Kel Wilson (click to tweet)

Yeah, I’m deleting quite a few of them.

Reminder 2

Tracy and I have been “idea building” for the new blog since it started. Conventions, health, travel, and just plain life have caused us to put these ideas on the back burner. We’ve had a lot of great ideas. It’s time to take ONE of them and make it a reality.

“One completed idea is better than a thousand stored in a file.” -Kel Wilson (click to tweet)

And that is exactly what we have committed to doing this month. Bringing at least one of these great ideas to fruition.

Reminder 3

On November 6th I received another reminder from life coach Tim Brownson at A Daring Adventure in his newsletter. Basically he says that he has watched many people attend seminars, workshops, classes, read dozens (maybe even hundreds) of books, create vision boards, and repeat mantras.

But, he says, they miss the last and most important ingredient.

The Work.

While all those other things take a huge amount of dedication, time, and effort, they are not the work.

He says, “It’s almost as though they think they can grow as a person and be more successful by the simple process of osmosis. That if they can just expose themselves to enough information, that in time it will start to seep in and take effect.”

“The same can be said of a lot of self-development books. Most of the good ones contain exercises in some way shape or form. Largely speaking those exercises are designed to move the knowledge from your conscious mind into your unconscious mind where the real power lies.”

This is the very thing I realized myself. All these self-help books are usually helpful but most people don’t take the time to DO the activities suggested.

Reading a book on mediation is great, and will probably give you a good idea of the principles and theory behind meditating. But you can’t get any of the health benefits or deep relaxation from reading the meditation book.

You have to actually meditate.

Why does the work get skipped?

I believe it’s because meditating (or any other life changing activity) doesn’t just fall into a persons day without effort. Most likely a time andspace will have to be carved into a person’s life to make meditation possible. It has to become a daily priority before the benefits are felt, and it won’t go smoothly the first few times because they rest of the household (including pets) will not realize that this is a priority for that person right away. Not to mention the learning curve involved with learning something new.

It’s the “changing up the routine” part that stops most people from doing the part that brings the most benefit.

Reminder 4

The last reminder came out of my own mouth. I wast checking my son’s science grammar and could tell that he didn’t quite understand some of the Latin words. I told him that the next time he didn’t understand a word he needed to take the time to look it up in the dictionary.

He groaned and rolled his eyes, “Do I really have to do that?!”

“Yes, doing that “thing” you really don’t want to do is what will make all the difference.” -Kel Wilson (click to tweet)

Taking the few short minutes to look up an unknown word would probably mean he would remember it for a long time.

As soon as I said it I recognized just how true that statement was for so MANY things.

Ask yourself, when is it time to stop collecting more knowledge and start doing the work?

I am a wildlife biologist turned wife and mother, and more recently artist and blogger. It’s my mission to spread this idea to as many women as possible: Stop punishing and depriving yourself! You are so important, unique, and special! Start loving yourself enough to make the changes you need to find your happy place. Start doing this by adding something you love to your everyday life. I promise you, it will rock your world!

One Response to 4 Reminders to Do The Work

Wonderful post! I’m coming off of a HUGE event at work, and trying to recapture my life. Some of this will involve rest and meditation, other parts will be doing – especially doing the things that were left behind in the planning for this huge event. And I also need to forge some new paths, make lasting time for myself. It’s a tall order, but the items on this post go a long way toward that.